Window Dressing - Untitled 70 (Edition 5) Photograph

Window Dressing The words advertising, marketing, and branding, are sometimes considered to be synonymous in the world of buying and selling goods and services. However, from the onset of this series the intent of the photographs was not to imply any notion that consumerism, no matter how it is hyped is good or bad. I am simply taking a closer look and examining the complexities of how we perceive and visualize what goes on in store windows. I am more interested in the reflective, surreal, inside/outside relationship and the visual narrative that sometimes occurs when looking through a store window, both inside the store and outside in the “real” world. I want to show these two seemingly different worlds and how they collide into a plethora of interesting visual dynamics. For example, the warmly lit window interiors with still and motionless subject matter and cool daylight penetrating through and reflecting off of the glass. All of this takes place amid a sometimes booming, palpable city complete with sirens, horns honking, and people passing by. Some of the people ignore the reflection of light on the window and it’s content inside, and some do an interactive dance around the window to see what’s inside. Cupping their hands around their eyes, moving in and out so that outside reflections don’t interfere with the quiet solitude of the manikins and sale items, and sometimes non-sale items, on the other side of a thin piece of glass. Rarely, do you see people looking at the reflection on the outside of the glass and the subject on the inside of the glass simultaneously. It’s these complex juxtapositions of subject, reflections, color, light, and movement that I find fascinating and try to explore photographically. DeGrand © 2012